In case you missed it, Kristen Lamb started a debate with her post yesterday—Sacred Cow-Tipping–Why Writers Blogging About Writing is Bad. A collective whine went up from the writing community. “No blogging about writing? Then what are we supposed to blog about?”
*raises hand* I was right there with the crowd, joining in the hyperventilating. What does that mean? Was that a secret shout-out to me?
I finally calmed down enough to actually read the post. Always a good idea. *ahem* Kristen also said:
“[B]logging about writing and creating a writing blog are two different animals.”
Ahh. Her point was that our blog should be about our brand. About us.
If all our posts are about writing craft, then the focus is on the craft of writing. If we blog about things that interest us, which can include writing, then the focus is on us.
For the “What should we blog about?” question, Kristen gave the answer in her post:
Want to know the formula for a hit blog?
Topics you are excited about + topics readers are excited about = hit blog
So then the question is…
What Topics Excite You?
*cue Jeopardy theme* Hmm, well, there’s writing and my family, and uh…
I don’t know about about anyone else, but I’m feeling rather lame and boring about now. *smile*
As I mentioned in my online brand vs. author brand post, the research I do for my novels is too scattered to build a brand around. I’m opinionated but have a live-and-let-live approach as to whether or not anyone should agree with me. And I’d never blog about my family because I’m a private person.
Kristen gave several suggestions in her post, but there are a lot of things I don’t do so I have more time to write and spend precious time with my family. I don’t watch TV. (I prided myself on the fact that I didn’t have a clue who Snooki was until her book came out.) Gardening in Arizona is impossible. (There is no soil to dig into.) I don’t have time for crafts, or video games, or anything else. I don’t cook, I rarely drink, and *whispers* I don’t even drink coffee. (I know. I’m a writer-heathen.)
You know what excites me? Sharing what I’ve learned. I love helping others, especially my “tribe”—other writers. I am a teacher at heart.
I love taking ideas from five different sources and meshing them into new concepts. I love reworking a vague or complicated idea into something clear and concise. I love making people think.
Those values are me. And my fiction writing reflects that. My novels have unique premises and explore deep issues. I want to make my fiction readers think too.
So here on my blog, I share. I share posts about writing craft, yes. But I also share my thoughts about the publishing industry, perfectionism, self-doubt, organizational tools, social media, website design, romance haters, being introverted, dreams, balancing all the demands on our time, muses and insanity, taking risks, making sacrifices, etc.
In other words, I ramble about whatever strikes my fancy that day. *smile*
Should I change my approach? I don’t think so. What would I do, start a bogus hobby just so I could blog about it? No thanks. While a readership in the millions would be nice, there isn’t anything I could blog about that would get me there.
This approach is me. Sharing is the emotional heart of my story. Sometimes my posts will be about writing craft, but often they won’t. Long blog series bore me, so I purposely mix topics around.
The important thing is that I’m sharing something I’ve learned. Right now, most of my readers are writers, so I relate each post back to writing. But I can add or expand examples to make the “lesson” relate-able to non-writers as my readership expands. I hope this means I’d fall into the “blogging about writing” camp rather than the “writing blog” camp Kristen mentioned.
But just because this approach works for me doesn’t mean it’s the right approach for anyone else. So I want to know, what do you blog about? How did you decide on that topic? Do you think you need to change it? If so (or if you don’t have a blog yet), what things interest you? Do you have ideas for what might make a good blog?
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